Suvendu Adhikari’s war on university teachers, communists and Mamata

“Let there be an all-out war against the communists, which may last for three months,” declared chief minister Suvendu Adhikari in the state Assembly on Thursday, 10 September. “Are you ready for battle?” he asked the MLAs, prompting BJP legislators — who number 206 in the 294-member House — to respond with a resounding “yes”.

There appeared to be no immediate provocation for the remarks, except what was seemingly in the chief minister's mind.

The occasion was a special session convened to pass a Bill allowing the inter-university transfer of teaching and non-teaching employees. The draft Bill was circulated to MLAs at 10.30 am, just half an hour before the session began, triggering protests from the Opposition.

In his rambling address, Adhikari said little about the Bill, except to declare mockingly that great leftist scholars would now be given an opportunity to demonstrate their scholarship in backward districts. Delivering a political speech in the assembly, he launched a vicious attack on the Left and Jadavpur University.

A few days earlier, he had led a group of Naga sadhus in loincloths and several thousand supporters carrying saffron flags to the university gate, where he threatened to uproot “anti-national” elements from the campus. He had also vowed to return to the campus to recite the 'Hanuman Chalisa', a compilation of 40 chaupais composed by Tulsidas in the 16th century.

Adhikari acknowledged what everyone already knew: the bill that allows the transfer of university staff was meant to “punish” teachers, especially those at Jadavpur University. Suvendu told the Assembly he didn’t care if anyone called it “misuse of power”, and asserted that he was ready to do “whatever is necessary” — even go to “war” — to weed out “Naxalism”.

He also utilised the occasion to order police action against those who insulted Dhirendra Shashtri alias Bageshwar Baba and burnt his effigies.

Both Congress and CPI(M) supporters have lodged multiple FIRs against the self-styled godman who sparked outrage by calling non-veg eating Bengalis during Durga Puja as ‘pakhandi’ (hypocrite).

The chief minister, however, went to the Kalighat temple on Thursday to partake the special ‘prasad’ which included several fish preparations. He shared photographs and videos from the temple by way of confirmation.    

Adhikari, sworn in as chief minister of West Bengal on 9 May 2026 has completed four months in office and what is already evident is Adhikari trying a little too hard to mould himself after chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Assam, Yogi Adityanath and Himanta Biswa Sarma. The reason, explain some, may lie in the fact that he is a new convert to Hindutva.

Adhikari is known to have been publicly abusive of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah when he was still with Mamata Banerjee. Today he swears by the prime minister and has ordered all schools in the state to light a record number of lamps at dusk on the prime minister’s birthday which falls on 17 September. He is in a hurry to stamp out all opposition to him within the BJP and the RSS who see him as an ‘outsider’. He is also out to prove his loyalty to Modi and Shah and demonstrate how staunch a Hindu he is.

Adhikari recently boasted of receiving a telephone call from industrialist Gautam Adani. The industrialist, he added, had told him that he had distributed sweets worth a million Rupees to celebrate Adhikari’s electoral victory. He has hinted at investment in the state by the industrialist but, ironically, has initiated steps to give Adanis the contract to restore and redesign the Writer’s Building which served as the state secretariat till Mamata Banerjee shifted the secretariat across the river to Howrah. The West Bengal government will now pay Adanis to restore the heritage building.

Adhikari has declared a war against Trinamool Congress as well. He would ensure that former chief minister Mamata Banerjee never steps out of her house, he has said. It is not a coincidence that state police have lodged hundreds of cases against her, her nephew, TMC legislators, councillors, former ministers and workers. The ‘egg therapy’ unleashed against TMC MPs has also been a part of the design to strike terror among rivals. The civic bodies have also begun inspecting fire-alarm systems in TMC offices.